In
the three years that Jose Padilla has been locked away in solitary
confinement, the government has been unable to cobble together enough
evidence to even charge him with a crime. They have nothing on him, just
the ever-changing claims of a Justice Department that shows less respect
for justice than it does for personal liberty.

Originally, Attorney
General John Ashcroft claimed that Padilla was a “dirty bomber” who
intended to detonate nuclear material within the US. Two years later,
Ashcroft reversed his claims saying that Padilla was planning to blow up
apartment buildings with natural gas pipelines. Just recently, the
government changed its story for a third time, saying that Padilla was “on
the battlefield” in Afghanistan which made him an enemy combatant. This
last twist to the story came in response to the ruling in Hamdi vs.
Rumsfeld which allows the government to indefinitely detain any
American citizen “picked up off the battlefield” while fighting the US.

It’s a fabrication,
of course, but the DOJ doesn’t mind the sloppiness of the deception as
long as their goals are achieved; in this case, the permanent imprisonment
of an American Muslim.

The Padilla case is
of particular interest now that we have a genuine case of domestic
terrorism we can use for comparison.

Last week, Earl Krugel was sentenced to 20
years in prison for his role in a plot to bomb a mosque and a US
congressman’s office near Los Angeles. Krugel was an active member in the
Jewish Defense League (JDL), a radical Jewish organization founded by
Rabbi Meir Kahane who “advocated the forceful removal of Arabs from
Israel.” The JDL received considerable negative attention in 1994 when one
of its members, Baruch Goldstein, went on a shooting spree in a mosque in
Hebron killing 29 Muslim worshippers and wounding approximately 100
others. Goldstein had gained notoriety earlier as a physician in the IDF
(Israeli Defense Force) for “refusing to treat non-Jews, even those
serving in the IDF.” This history of violence and bigotry helps us to
understand the background for Krugal’s homicidal intentions. He emerged
from a culture of religious and sectarian hatred.

Krugel was caught
red-handed in “a conspiracy to violate the civil rights of worshippers at
Culver City’s King Fahd Mosque and one count of carrying an explosive
device in connection with a conspiracy to impede or injure Republican US
Rep. Darrell Issa.” (Seattle Times) The evidence against him was
overwhelming.

US District Court Judge Ronald Lew threw the
book at Krugal saying that his actions “promoted hatred in the most vile
way.” He sentenced Krugal to the maximum of 20 years. Unfortunately, the
unrepentant Krugal knows a great deal more about the conspiracy then he is
willing to admit and has failed a polygraph test five times.

“You are not a
changed person,” said Judge Lew. “You have more to give.”

Regrettably, only a
handful of newspapers published this appalling story of domestic
terrorism. It is impossible to explain why the Jewish Krugal escaped the
media’s attention while the uncorroborated allegations against the Muslim
Padilla attracted widespread coverage in both TV and the print media.

It is even more
difficult to grasp why one man is locked away without any chance to defend
himself against baseless accusations, while another is given full access
to the legal system. We can only assume that there are no longer any
objective standards for measuring guilt or innocence, just the fickle
inclinations of the men in power. The cases of these two men were decided
on the basis of religion alone, a clear indictment of the existing system.
By Bush’s standards, Krugal should have been promptly shunted off to
Guantanamo to join the countless other terror suspects who have been
completely denied due process. Instead, he was granted a lengthy trial and
given every opportunity to acquit himself. Padilla, on the other hand, has
been arbitrarily stripped of his civil liberties, with no prospect of
establishing his innocence.

Krugal is a radical,
a terrorist, and a murderer. Nevertheless, he has every right to be
charged with a crime, to face his accusers, to have an attorney for his
defense, to produce witnesses on his behalf, and to be tried by a jury of
his peers. These same principles were honored when Timothy McVeigh was
charged in the bombing at Oklahoma City and the system worked effectively.
Padilla is entitled to these very same rights.

The law is more
important than Krugal or the injury he might cause, just as the
presumption of innocence is more important than the loss of innocent
lives. The law is the only shield the citizen has against the terror of
the state, which has traditionally been the greatest threat to humanity.
The ongoing imprisonment of Jose Padilla shows that that shield has been
removed and replaced with an apartheid system that operates capriciously
and without set standards. The president now has full authority to rescind
the constitution at will and declare any man an enemy combatant at his own
discretion. There can be no justice when the fate of men like Padilla
depends on the subjective judgment of one man alone.